A Word on Versions

When I started writing this book, PHP-Nuke was at version 7.3. That's the version I have installed at www.ScriptingAnswers.com/cms2, which is the sample PHP-Nuke Web site I'll use throughout this book. The author of PHP-Nuke releases a new version every few months or so, but at some point I had to pin down which version I was going to use for the book. Given the time it takes to write a book, edit the manuscript, chop down trees, and print the thing, I can absolutely guarantee that a different version will be the "latest" by the time you're reading this.

Fret not. For the most part, each version of PHP-Nuke introduces relatively minor changes. It'll be a big deal going from 6.9 (which was a very popular version) to 7.3 because there were four versions' worth of changes, but for the most part, the product evolves relatively slowly. Many Web-hosting companies that include PHP-Nuke with their service are still installing v6.9, and you know what? It works fine. PHP-Nuke isn't like Microsoft Office or something, where if you don't have the latest version, the cool kids won't talk to you anymore. Plenty of folks are running the very stable older versions, and they're quite happy.

That said, if you do decide to upgrade, it's not difficult. Topic 66, "Upgrading PHP-Nuke," covers upgrades, in fact, showing you how to go from v6.9 to v7.3. (v6.9 is what my Web-hosting company installs for me, so I had to manually upgrade to 7.3. It was a piece of cake, as you'll see.)

So the bottom line is, don't worry too much about versions. Know what version you've got, and pay attention to www.phpnuke.org to see if the latest version has any features you care about. But don't think you need to upgrade "just because."